A free screening of The Trials of Spring, a documentary directed by Academy Award-nominated Gini Reticker, will be open to the public at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, March 29, at the Normal Theater.

This feature documentary recounts the story of 21-year-old Hend Nafea, who travels from her village to Cairo in the early days of the Arab Spring in search of freedom and justice. As the country becomes gripped in a dangerous power struggle, she endures crushing setbacks. In the end, Hend’s resilience sustains the hope of reform for her and her fellow activists, even during the darkest hours of their struggle for a better Egypt.

The director and film subject will be available for a Q & A. This event is sponsored by The Harold K. Sage Foundation, Women’s and Gender Studies Program, the Department of History, the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, the Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures and the Illinois Wesleyan University Department of Political Science.